Football Season Guide

Hammarby had a strange last season. Only the top 2 teams had fewer defeats than Hammarby’s 8 in 2023 and yet 11 draws from their other 22 matches (the most draws in the league) meant that Hammarby were never in real contention for the medals. They finished 2023 in 7th place but full 13 points behind the medals and 20 points behind the champions. The inability to win matches was linked to the shaky defending. In 2023 Hammarby had only 9 clean sheets in 30 rounds. At the end of the season the decision was made to change managers. Spaniard Cifuentes left and experienced coach Kim Hellberg is in charge now. The new manager is going to work with pretty much the same core of players. The only new signing expected to start often is Oscar Johansson. At the same time, the only departed player that was projected to play regularly is centre-back Adjei. Hammarby will once again rely mainly on their captain Besara (12 assists in 2023) and star striker Djukanovic (11 goals in 2023) up front. Also, it’s evident that the new manager will be exploiting the flanks more. Hammarby have aggressive players on both flanks. Full-backs Strand and Linares like to venture forward a lot. Wingers Boudah and Madjed will operate in front of them and with all 4 on the pitch Hammarby have variable weapons to cause problems. Hammarby have 3 quality centre-backs (Kurtulus, Pinas and Fenger) but keeping all of them healthy was a challenge last year. The health of these 3 players is likely to determine how successful the 2024 season will be as the main reason Hammarby struggled to record more wins last year was their inability to keep clean sheets.